Blood, Sweat, and Tears
by The Little Selkie 925
Summary: One shot. Everything seemed perfect. Bikini Bottom was saved but Sandy still has something to say to SpongeBob... and after sudden turn of events, this could be her last chance. (A darker take on the ending of the SpongeBob Musical. Contains Spandy, possible out-of-characterness, hope you like it. Rated T for blood. read and review please!:) )


Well, this probably sucks more than I meant it to. Sorry if anyone's out of character, this is my first time writing for any of these characters. I just love this musical too much! I had to write something for it!

Also note: This is based off of SpongeBob Squarepants the Broadway Musical, So these are humanized characters that look like how they do in the play (you can look up images on google if you haven't seen any commercials or anything for it). I only added to those designs by giving Sandy a squirrel tail and ears. Also, the SpongeBob Musical was directed by Tina Lindau (I think that's how you spell it...) and Kyle Jarrow, and SpongeBob belongs to Nickelodeon.

* * *

Sandy had a blank stare dead on the opposite side wall of the Hospital's waiting room.

It had been two hours now, and she still couldn't get those horrible images out of her head.

* * *

 _Two hours earlier…_

"Daddy! I found him! He's over here!"

Sandy heard Pearl from not too far away and breathed a sigh of relief. SpongeBob. No one had seen him in a half hour and even Squidward was at the point of being worried. Sandy had left that point when she had found out that no one had any idea where the sponge was.

The squirrel sprinted towards the voice until she found the source. The teenage whale had a blank stare at the ground in front of her.

"…Pearl?" Sandy asked afraid of the answer she was going to get.

Sandy slowly turned her head to the direction the teen was looking, and her joy turned into terror.

SpongeBob was unconscious on the sand behind a piece of coral, not far from where the concert was taking place. All of the color seemed to have been drained from his face and he was covered from head to toe in sweat and volcanic ash. The skin around the scrapes and cuts visible on his body was red and inflamed.

"Sweet Mother of Pearl…" Mr. Krabs muttered.

"So we found the nimrod?" Squidward asked as he and Patrick came up to the scene, then the two glanced down as well, "Oh Neptune…"

"What happened?!" Patrick asked, eyes wide with terror, "He was fine before!"

"I don't know, I just don't know…" Sandy muttered.

"I'll be right back." Mr. Krabs informed. "If he wakes up, keep him calm."

Sandy went over to kneel beside her unconscious friend. She felt her heart pound harder when she noticed the spots of blood coming up through his yellow shirt. She checked his pulse. It wasn't as strong as it should've been, and his skin felt so warm.

"…Is… Is he…" Patrick couldn't finish his sentence. Not that he had too.

"He's clearly still breathing, idiot." Squidward interrupted, quite rudely if Sandy said so herself.

But she didn't pay attention to that.

She watched as SpongeBob's eyes started to flutter open. He moved his head to the side, and put on the weakest smile when he saw the squirrel at his side.

'S-Sandy..." He whispered. He tried to move his right arm, which he had across his chest, but it rubbed against whatever wounds must have been there, because his face contorted and he let out a cry of pain. Sandy felt the tears well up in her eyes.

"Miss, can you give him some air?" Sandy looked up. She hadn't even realized that Mr. Krabs had returned with the doctor.

She reluctantly stood up and next to Pearl, who just looked at her with a curious look.

Then the doctor lifted up SpongeBob's shirt to survey the damage on his chest.

It wasn't pretty.

He had a horrid second-degree burn that was spread across most of his chest and stomach, the blisters, some of them fairly large were popping and oozing blood and puss.

Sand felt the tears run down her face.

"EWWWW! What was that for!?" Pearl shrieked when Squidward's vomit splashed on her shoes.

"You're going to have to get him to a hospital," The doctor had said, "And fast."

The next half hour or so passed by in a blur for Sandy. She remembered an ambulance coming from the next town over, all of them getting in a boat mobile to follow it, Squidward and Mr. Krabs arguing about the proper way to use an OPS (ocean positioning system), and arriving at the New Flukeland Hospital and waiting for word from the doctors.

* * *

They had been waiting for an hour.

Though Sandy had technically only been waiting a half hour, because the doctors insisted, in spite of her resistance, on patching up her cuts from the climb on Mt. Humungous.

It was still a half hour too long.

 _'Why?!_ _'_ Sandy thought, _'Why did it have to be him?!'_

She shifted her eyes around the waiting room. Patrick was sitting on the seat to her right, his face red and tear stained. Squidward was on the other side, but two seats away, clearly not knowing what to think. Mr. Krabs and Pearl were in the chairs leaning against the wall on the opposite side.

Pearl had taken her shoes off… for obvious reasons.

"Well, I'm going to the vending machine." Squidward said standing up.

"Not surprising considering you emptied your stomach on my shoes…" Pearl muttered passive aggressively.

"Look, I apologized and I don't know what else you want me to do!" And with that the grumpy octopus left the room.

"I was about to throw up too…" Sandy muttered.

"Sandy… are you alright?" Mr. Krabs asked.

Sandy was about to answer when Pearl interrupted, looking up from her phone for the first time since they arrived.

"I just don't get how he got covered in so much ash. Sandy was climbing the mountain with him and she wasn't covered in ash, and she didn't have any major burns…"

Sandy ran out the waiting room.

She could only run half way down the hall before exhaustion kicked in (Apparently climbing a mountain running on only three hours of sleep did that to you), so she sat down against the wall and started sobbing with her forehead on her knees, hugging her tail against her face.

"Wow. What'd I miss in there?" A familiar voice asked, and she turned her head away from the four white shoes she saw out of the corner of her eye.

"Don't start asking me if I'm ok… 'Cause I'm not!" Sandy snapped, "Just leave me alone!"

She felt a hand on her shoulder, but didn't raise her head.

"Sandy, what's wrong?" Patrick asked, "You're not acting like yourself."

"Yeah… I think this is, like, the first time I've ever seen you cry." Pearl commented.

Sandy lifted her head. "…It's all my fault."

"What's your fault, lass?" Mr. Krabs asked.

Sandy couldn't take it anymore, "IT'S MY FAULT HE'S HURT WORSE THAN A PIG IN THE BACON FACTORY! I JUST HAD TO THINK OF SOMETHING THAT HAD TO BE PLACED _INSIDE_ THE VOLCANO!"

"What are you talking about?" Squidward asked.

"When he climbed up into the…" Patrick thought aloud, "That's how he got covered in the ash…"

"Exactly…" Sandy said.

"What _happened_ on that mountain?!" Squidward asked.

"When we were on the top…" Sandy started to explain, "SpongeBob was… was the only one who could fit through spaces enough to get to the crater… so he had to be the one to climb up and throw it in…"

"Oh…" Squidward responded as everything clicked into place in his head.

"Sandy… If it's anyone's fault it's mine." Patrick admitted, "I'm the one who forgot I had a jet pack on and I…"

"But none of us would've been hurt if I could've thought of something else… I know y'all won't get it but… ever since I met him… and whenever I'm near him… I feel something I had never felt until I met him… I feel so happy whenever he's around, and the last thing I would have ever wanted for him was to be in this situation…"

"You love him." Squidward said bluntly.

Sandy stared up at him, eyes wide.

"I KNEW IT!" Patrick shouted with the biggest smile on his face.

"GIRRRRRLLLL! I gotta call ALL my friends right now!" Pearl shrieked, "Our OTP's been made real!"

"If you don't keep your voices down I'm going to have to ask you to leave." One of the nurses at the help desk informed, "You're already here after visiting hours."

"I think what everyone is _trying_ to say," Mr. Krabs was next to speak, and was clearly unhappy with how the others were handling this situation, "Is that we knew, No matter how much you tried to hide it. "We also noticed that he loves you too."

"Yeah." Patrick agreed. "He almost died the first time he went over to your tree dome just so he wouldn't let you down!"

"…Really?" Sandy asked.

"We've all seen the way you look at each other, whether we wanted to or not." Squidward remarked, slightly disgusted, but not all the way so, as if there was part of his brain had accepted it, while part of it hadn't, "And it was more than obvious, but I guess that barnacle brain was too dumb to notice."

"What do I do?" Sandy asked.

"Well… Do you want to see what the doctor has to say first?" Squidward asked, "Then we'll decide what you should do. Sound good?"

Sandy nodded and stood up. The group made their way back to the waiting room where the doctor was already standing.

Sandy sat down in one of the chairs as the doctor started.

"That sponge is lucky to be alive. His cuts and scrapes were infected, and the burn on his chest didn't help him any. His fever was almost enough to kill him, not to mention the broken ribs and dehydration… We're sure he'll recover."

Sandy gave a sigh.

"Can we see him?" Pearl asked.

The doctor hesitated, "…Yes… but I should let you know he's still asleep. Don't try to wake him up. He's in room 328." The doctor then left the room. And the group made their way to room 328.

* * *

Pearl opened the door.

Sandy sat in the chair that had already been pulled up beside the bed.

Despite the word that SpongeBob was gonna make it, the look of him wouldn't have said so. His arms were covered with bandages, a cannula was up his nose, and an IV was in one of his forearms. There was still no color in his face and he was still sweating. He was completely motionless except for his shaky breaths. Right beside the bed, the vitals-monitors beeped and showed colorful wavy lines on their screens. A sight that reminded Sandy of the monitor Plankton's wife pushed around for reasons she didn't know, nor did she care that much, especially not in that moment.

She reluctantly reached out and put her hand through SpongeBob's mess of red hair. As if it were the normal reaction to the touch, his eyes opened, his eyes shifted around the room, then he turned his gaze to Sandy. "…W-Where?…" he started to ask.

"Guys! He's awake!" Patrick said excitedly, causing SpongeBob to turn his attention on his other friends in the room he smiled seeing all of them there.

"Climbing into the crater of a _volcano_?! What in the name of the seven seas were you _thinking_?!" Squidward demanded in a scolding manner.

"Why do you care so much?" SpongeBob asked, "You hate me."

Squidward was struck speechless for a moment, "…It's… It's not that I _hate_ hate you, but…"

Patrick once again felt his eyes well up with tears, this time it was tears of joy, "You _do_ care about us!" he said pulling Squidward into a tight hug, which Squidward quickly attempted to wiggle out of.

"Squidward, take it easy on the boy, will you?" Mr. Krabs asked.

"Oh, why, so he can turn into your money-making machine again?" Squidward asked, which in turn triggered an argument.

Sandy rolled her eyes and turned back to SpongeBob, "Where… Am I?" He asked.

"You're in the hospital, Sponge." Sandy replied, though she couldn't hide the break in her voice, "Y'all were banged up pretty bad."

SpongeBob looked worried for his friend, "Sandy… What's wron-" He started to ask before breaking into a hacking cough. By the time it subsided he was hyperventalating, and a thin stream of blood was trickling out of the corner of his mouth, a wisp of it was floating through the water.

Sandy felt the tears coming down her face before she even knew she was crying, "I'M _SORRY_!" she cried, "I'M SO _SORRY_!"

"Sandy… What…?" SpongeBob tried to ask something, but the cough had drained his strength to speak.

"It's my fault!" Sandy said. "Your scrapes got infected because of _me_! You got that burn on your chest because of _me_! I was so _stupid_! Why couldn't I think of something _else_?! I almost killed you and were the only thing I've ever…" she stopped herself, and just stared into SpongeBob's blue eyes. And what she did next… maybe it was just her way of saying what she was unable to put into words.

She felt blood on her lips when she kissed him.

SpongeBob's eyes went as round as his weakened, exhausted state would allow, and Sandy heard the heart monitor speed up slightly.

Pearl put her hands on her mouth to muffle her squeals.

Even when Sandy broke the kiss, the sponge's shocked expression didn't change.

"Are you ok, Sponge?" Patrick asked before coming over to the bed, "Don't listen to her. It's my fault. I could've given you the jetpack and…"

"No…" SpongeBob said, recovering from the shock, "It's… no one's fault…"

"B-but… but if I'd just…" Sandy stuttered between sobs.

"I… Did what I… had to do." SpongeBob said, "I-It's ok, and… It was worth it… to save the town… and all of you…" he deeply inhaled, then he moaned and his eyelids drooped. Sandy took his hand took his hand and rubbed her thumb across it. SpongeBob's eyelids fluttered, "Sandy… the kiss…"

"I'm sorry," Sandy said, shaking her head, and just remembering, wiping the blood from her lips with her free hand. "I didn't know how else to put it."

SpongeBob seemed to have a, albeit weak, mischievous smile on his face, and you could never know what that meant. "Sandy… Can you… give me… a hug?..."

Sandy got up and onto the bed and snuggled into SpongeBob's side, resting her head on his chest, and still holding his hand, being careful to be gentle around his ribcage, and not to rest her head on his burn. Despite the pain it caused, SpongeBob wrapped his arm around her shoulders. As soon as she was comfortable, she felt her eyelids start to droop closed.

Then she felt a kiss on her forehead.

Neither one of them had to say a word after that.

* * *

"…And there's _also_ the fact that that precious little restaurant took a beating when the town was rioting in the street, so I don't understand…"

"Squidward," Patrick interrupted Squidward's tirade by coming up and tapping him on the shoulder, tapping him on the shoulder, "Look!"

Squidward and Mr. Krabs looked over to see SpongeBob and Sandy asleep snuggled up against one another in the hospital bed.

"Awwww!" Pearl squealed. "I just can't take it!"

"Do you really think they love each other?" Squidward asked Mr. Krabs, only to earn a confused look from the crab.

"You were the first to confront her about it."

"I know but… It just seemed like… I thought it was just one of those crushes that would come and go. I didn't expect…"

"Amazing. They were never even meant to meet. A squirrel from Texas and a sponge who lives in a pineapple under the sea… you'd never think that would work… but look where we are."

Squidward could only smile and say, "Yeah… Maybe…"

* * *

So what do you think? Feel free to review. I have other ideas for one shots based on this musical, so stay tuned for that! :)


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